Sunil Kataria, an entrepreneur who started Wealth Creators, K. Janardan with Delphi Automotive Systems and Supriya Kataria with Green Place IT Services, all KIAMS alumni who have done well in the world of business were interviewed recently and asked about advice they would have for today’s students.

Supriya Kataria, a principal consultant in charge of hiring top-notch management, said she would advise students: “When they’re doing their summer projects which is likely to happen in their first year, they should do it very seriously and should get into an industry where they would like to take their career ahead. You should not take up things for just the sake of it, because the summer projects will matter a lot in the years to come when they will finally decide which industry they want to be in. She also urged them to keep on top of current events.

“Read a lot of newspapers and articles and be aware of the things that are happening in the economy,” said Supriya. “The recession has started. These are very tough times and we are very sceptical about what will happen … so that you will need a lot of reading. That will help you to select the industry you want to go in and career that you’d like to choose for yourself.”

For budding entrepreneurs, Sunil Kataria said: “Get into any area where there is something special – something unique to offer. There is a competitive world outside and you have to have something which is different from that what is currently available. It is very difficult to enter into any field until you have something different to offer. “There is no field untapped today. I don’t think there is anything where we can say one can have a monopoly or can be the only one.”

In his line of work, he said two traits are key: “Patience and diligence have to be the top most things in you because you have to face it every day that there is a rejection possibility.”

Integrity is paramount for K. Janardan. “The most important thing according to me is integrity,” he said. “When I say integrity I do not only mean about your behaviour, but I mean being truthful to yourself and going ahead and doing what you plan to do -thinking and believing in what you think and then taking up the initiative and effort to accomplish it and having integrity toward the company as well as to yourself.” Secondly, he urged students to be flexible when entering the world of work.

“When one enters the corporate world you are still a fresher,” he said. “So do not be hell-bent saying I want only this and only this and I don’t want to join any other kind of company. It doesn’t really matter if you are not getting a very good company as long as your prime focus remains the same. Be flexible because one should get into what company you can, work hard and get to whatever role you want to get into and that is something which totally depends upon your performance.”